


Of Love and Flowers

by ashleyy15



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Eventual Fluff, F/M, Language of Flowers, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-21
Updated: 2013-11-21
Packaged: 2018-01-02 06:26:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1053562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashleyy15/pseuds/ashleyy15
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Even if 2000 years have passed, I'll never forget you." A blue hyacinth signifies constancy. A Michaelmas daisy means farewell. Petra is a florist along with her other friends. When she meets a stranger, she is overwhelmed with nostalgia at his knowledge of the language of flowers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Love and Flowers

**Author's Note:**

> For my best friend who ships these two as much as I do.

"Have you seen Petra?"

     "Sorry sir, I haven't," said Eren with an apologetic look.

     Levi sighed, irritated that no one seemed to know where Petra went. Eren had been the fifth person he'd ask that afternoon and the fact that no one saw the soldier was a little strange. Surely someone must have seen her walk by or something. Quickly dismissing the titan shifter from his sight, Levi continued down the hallway, heading towards the back of the building. Maybe some fresh air could clear his head a little.

     He stopped in his tracks when his eyes wandered towards a certain ginger. There, squatting down near a patch of flowers was the girl he had been finding for a half hour. Tried as he might, he couldn't remain cross on her. There was something about her that always soothed him, that brought calmness to him. "Petra?" He called out as he made his way towards her.

     Petra still kept her back towards the Corporal so he wondered if she even heard him at all. "Petra?" He called out again. This time, the ginger haired girl turned around, a surprised expression plastered on her face. "What are you doing there? Don't you have something to do with shitty-glasses today?" He asked, keeping his tone neutral. Standing beside the crouching soldier, he saw that she had been holding a book to her chest as if she were holding some precious. Out of curiosity, he squatted down and attempted to grab the book from her. "What is that?"

     Petra blushed a bit before meekly handing over the book to Levi. "It's a book about flowers. I found it in the study the other day when we're cleaning," she explained while looking at Levi's expression. She wondered if it made Levi think less of her. Being the only girl in his squad made her miss doing feminine things at times. So when she found a book about the language of flowers, she couldn't help but grab it when she had the chance. She doubted the other men in the squad had interest in the language of flowers so she kept it a secret from them and visited the small flower garden behind the building during lunch hours. Sometimes, she would get so engrossed in the book that she forgot the time of the day.

     "Not bad."

     Levi continued browsing through the pages of the book, trying to find out what interest Petra so much.

     "Why do you find this book interesting? Is it because of the pretty flowers?" Levi asked, keeping his expression stoic as usual.

     Petra let out a small chuckle. Levi saw her scooting a bit closer to him, kneeling down next to him before pulling the book closer to her. His eyes followed as Petra's finger traced the surface of the page. "The flowers _are_  pretty but I’m more interested in the flowers’ meaning,” Petra told him. “See? A blue hyacinth means constancy. A Michaelmas daisy means farewell. Also, a red rose means I love-,”

     “What?”

     Petra shook her head, hoping her cheeks weren’t flushed. “Nothing,” she muttered. There was no way she was going to say the three words to the Corporal, especially not when she was harbouring feelings for him. “I just love the language of flowers. In my opinion, I think flowers mean a lot more than normal words.”

     Levi didn’t really know what to say about that. So instead he settled with a safe response. “I see.”

 

\--

He couldn’t get her corpse back within the walls, all he had was her badge and the book they shared. There wasn't even any funeral for the dead soldiers, naturally there wasn't one for her either. The commander had asked if he was okay so many times that he lost counted. She was gone and that was his reality. While the others were busy getting ready to ambush the person behind the Female Titan, he was standing there at the back of the building where he had spent his time with her studying the language of flowers. 

     In his left hand was the book which they read together, in his other hand was a bouquet of flowers. Each flower had a different meaning to them, each of them was something Levi never got the chance to tell her. Now that she was gone, he wondered if she would ever know.

     Levi squatted down at the spot where he had found her looking at the book weeks ago. He couldn’t believe such a long time had passed since that day. It only felt like yesterday when Petra was encouraging him to memorize the meaning of each flower.

     Nothing could bring that back.

     He reached into his breast pocket and retrieved Petra’s badge. After washing away her blood and ironing it, Levi had made sure it looked good as new. He wanted this to be perfect, even though it could never be. Her absence was a constant reminder that he had to rid the Titans as soon as possible.

     “I’m not here to say goodbye,” he said. He didn’t want to. He refused to.

     He let the flowers do the talking. After placing the book in the middle of the flower patch, he slowly placed the flowers on top along with Petra’s badge. “Good job, soldier,” he whispered as the uncontrollable tears soon rolled down both cheeks. It had been a long time since he cried for anyone, so when the silent tears come, he was surprised at himself as well.

     When he finally stood up and rubbed away the tears, he whispered something in French, his voice hoarse. The words he whispered lost in the air, only for Petra’s ears. There was nothing else to do. He had done his grieving. With all his strength, he staggered away from the flower patch, promising himself to tend the flowers every day from then on.

     Back in the flower patch laid a Michaelmas daisy, a burgundy rose and zinnia. They weren’t the usual flowers found in funerals, they’re colours too bright for one thing, but each of them held a message.

     _Constancy. Unconscious beauty. I mourn your absence._

_Goodbye, my love._

\--2000 years later--

“Petra!” A loud voice that belonged to none other than Hanji rang through the whole shop.  Petra could just imagine her other employees groaning at the sound of her voice.

     Beside her, Armin winced and gave her a pleading look. “Could you please go see what she wants? You and Eren are the only ones who could tolerate her,” the blonde said as his hands continued to work on the unopened boxes. He was giving her ‘the eyes’ and so far, no one in the shop could stand ‘the eyes’.

     Petra groaned, hating that she lost to the blonde. “Oh fine. You continue with these boxes. When Eren and Jean get back, tell them to sort out the flowers in alphabetical order please.” After giving Armin the simple order, she took off her gardening gloves into a pile of gloves and staggered out of the back room. Petra smoothed out the wrinkles in her white button-up shirt before proceeding to meet Hanji.

     She found her standing near the counter with a stack of books next to her. Petra wondered sometimes if she would have acted differently towards Hanji if the both of them weren’t sharing the responsibility of owning the shop. At the sight of Petra, Hanji grinned and didn’t hesitate before rushing into explaining. “Hey, how’s the shop? Sorry for disappearing for a few days! I just discovered something interesting on the internet a few days ago and I thought that-,”

     Petra quickly stopped Hanji by blurting out a question. “What are those books?”

     “Books? Oh these! Well, these books are filled with the meanings of each and every flower. Do you know how this could improve our business?” But Petra didn’t hear Hanji, her attention was fixed on the leather-bound books on the counter. There was something about them that made her feel...nostalgic.

     “Petra?”

     “Hmm? Oh sorry! I was just curious about the books. What were you saying?” Petra offered a smile to Hanji.

     “As I was saying, now customers could know the meaning behind the flowers we have before picking them. Did you know a Yarrow flower means a cure for a broken heart?” Hanji continued to spit out meanings of different flowers while Petra reached for one of the books and flipped it open. On the pages were pictures of flowers with their meaning underneath each picture. Petra quickly flipped towards the rose section and felt herself blush when she noticed the meaning behind a red rose. She always thought that red roses meant sensuality or maybe even fancying a person.

     _I love you._

The words hit her hard. Somehow, the nostalgic feeling returned and this time, she couldn’t shake them off.

     _Cling._

Her eyes darted towards the entrance of the flower shop and mentally cursed when she noticed Sasha had forgotten to pick up the scattered flowers. “Go handle the customer, I’ll just put these in the office,” Hanji said as she rushed off to the shared office with the books in her arms. Petra would just have to look at the books later, she couldn’t possibly ignore a customer.

     “Welcome to Petra and Zoe’s Flower shop!”

     She pulled away from the counter and walked towards the customer. What she found surprised her a bit. The man was short, taller than her, but shorter than most of her male employees. His hairstyle was a bit odd, but she decided not to point it out. His expression stoic, emotionless. The customer appeared to be a working man, judging by the formal office clothing. What was a person like him doing in a flower shop? He looked rich enough to hire someone to do his shopping.

    “Hello, mister. Do you have any particular flower you may like to order?” Petra asked in her usual nice-and-sweet-florist voice. When the man didn’t answer her(or ignored her, more like it), she got a little irritated. But judging by his stoic expression, maybe he was going through a tough time. “Are you going through heartbreak, mister? I heard an Achillea Millefolium could cheer someone up!” She offered, taking a single stem of said flower and handed it to the man. She expected the man to ignore her again, but to her surprise, he took it. To her greater surprise, he chuckled.

     “I’m not going through heartbreak, miss.”

     Petra felt herself gasped when they made eye contact. There it was again! Was there a reason she kept feeling nostalgic?

     “Petra, sir.”

     “What?”

     “My name is Petra.” She said with a smile. “Everyone calls me that.”

     The man raised an eyebrow, a small smile appearing on his face. Now, he didn’t look as scary as before, Petra thought. “Levi. Only my workers call me ‘sir’.”

     “O-okay, Levi.”

     She watched as he walked over to another part of the shop. Being the good shop owner she was, Petra followed after him, wondering where she had seen him before. Stopping in front a bunch of roses, she watched as Levi picked a burgundy rose from the bunch. ‘What an odd pick,’ she thought to herself.

     “Burgundy roses mean unconscious beauty. Did you know that?” Levi asked.

     “N-no, I didn’t. Would you like to get that, Levi?”

     Levi paused for awhile before answering, “Sure.” The both of them made their way to the counter where Levi paid for the rose along with the Achillea Millefolium that Petra practically gave to him. She did insist that he had it for free, that it was on her since he looked so gloomy awhile ago, but Levi insisted on buying it off her anyway. “Who knows? Maybe I lied about not going through heartbreak.”

     At that, Petra froze. “Then I can’t take your money then, mister! It would be like I’m taking advantage of your sadness or something!”

     “I’m joking.”

     “Oh.”

     Levi smirked, already enjoying Petra’s expressions. After paying for the two flowers, he took the burgundy rose and gave it to the ginger. Petra stared at Levi, confused at his actions. “You gave me this flower, so this rose is for you.”

     “B-but sir-“

     “Just take it, would you?” Petra quickly took it from him when she thought she saw irritation flashing in his eyes. The burgundy rose felt heavy in her hands, this was the first time a person of the opposite gender had given her flowers. It made her feel quite proud, but at the same time she felt shy as well. “Well, bye Petra.”

     “Bye?” She stared at Levi’s back as he exit the shop, frozen in her spot. She felt dazed and confused as to why that particular customer had affected her that much. Even after Hanji returned from the office to help her out, she still found herself thinking of Levi.

     What was this feeling? 

**Author's Note:**

> I'll post a few more chapters if requested. This is my first snk fanfic so I'm sorry if there are any mistakes!


End file.
